THE PUBLIC SERVICE

Otago Daily Times, Issue 24696, 27 August 1941, Page 6

THE PUBLIC SERVICE

RECRUITMENT AND TRAINING NEW METHODS FORESHADOWED GOOD POSITIONS OFFERING (PA) WELLINGTON, Aug. 26. A new policy of the recruitment of the staff for the' public service and of post-recruitment training is to be announced shortly, said Mr S. T. Barnett, superintendent of staff training in the office of the Public Service Commissioner, in an address on “ Employment in the Public Service” at the Vocational Association conference to-day. Mr Barnett said the plan had been under consideration by a committee for some time, and would be the most progressive and liberal policy the public service had ever entertained, both for the recruitment of junior staff- and its subsequent training. Careers for Women Mr Barnett said the plan embodied great advances on anything the service had had before. Among other things, women would not be able to quarrel with the plans for careers for them. It was sometimes said that the public service sought to obtain undue privileges from the secondary schools. It was not seeking to obtain special privileges, but was trying to bring about better service to the community. The service should not be allowed to go without a good percentage of the best brains of the country. Its greatest lack to-day was of first-class executives between the ages of 30 and 40. “We do offer among the most important jobs in the country in finance, administration, organisation, engineering and science, Mr Barnett said. “ One is entitled to say that there will be bigger jobs in the future, something to challenge the imagination of the young people.” Facilities for Advancement The public service had greater scope for real brains than many organisations which got much kinder assistance from those concerned in the placing of boys, he said. The service had greater consideration for its boys than those organisations. It sought deliberately for the best boys in its employ and offered them every facility for advancing their education. “We are firm believers in the value of vocational guidance and careers advisers,” Mr Barnett said. “We want your help and co-operation. The public service does not stand in the high esteem of this country, as it does in some of the great nations. In England and America the public service is a much-sought-after occupation, and is subject to high examinations, but the salaries they pay are no better in relation to outside business than in the public service in New Zealand."